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Many brain diseases show an activation of the immune system and this immune response can contribute to disease severity. The brain’s immune response can be altered by inflammatory events outside of the brain, and our previous work demonstrated that this leads to long-lasting changes in the immune response, which in turn alters the progression of Alzheimer’s disease pathology in animal models. Thus, the brain’s immune cells have an immunological memory function, which can impact on brain diseases that develop much later in life.

Acute kidney injury (AKI) remains a frequent complication of severe disease. Despite progress in supportive care, the overall mortality and long-term consequences of this complication have not changed significantly. Although complex genetic models and cell lineage tracking have identified subsets of cells that play a central role during the recovery of renal function, the processes that occur immediately after an injury remain unknown because it is virtually impossible to assess these events in mammalian models.

The increasing demand on available donor organs makes isolated machine perfusion an attractive tool to improve graft quality prior to implantation. The present study focuses on the role of red blood cells in normothermic organ perfusion by using an ex vivo pig kidney model. The study aims to analyze if high renal flow rates during cell free perfusion compared to red blood cell supplemented solution during long-term perfusion could be detrimental and if high oxygen partial pressures in perfusate may negatively impact organ integrity.